How To Set Up A Bass Guitar

Welcome to Part five of the Bass Essentials Series. In this part we're going to look at setting up a bass guitar to playability and ultimately answer the question: how to gear up up a bass guitar. We're going to look at:

• Setting up your bass' truss rod, bridge and string height
• Some tools to keep your bass clean and functional and
• Some final little tips to keep in mind when setting up your bass

Why Set Your Bass At All?

The respond is quite simple: a bass guitar that is properly fix will actually play well. Consider a trip you might have had recently to a local music shop. You lot spotted a bass on the wall that looked cool and y'all took it down and started to play it. You begin to notice that the strings seem rather high off the fretboard, sure notes buzz and clang and the neck feels gunky and slow.

This is an example of a bass that has not been properly ready up and is likely in demand of some care and attention. Would you have that bass to a gig and play it? Probably not.

That'southward why we go our instruments set up.

How to Prepare  Your Bass Guitar: The Essential Cognition

When it comes to setting up your bass at that place are a few key aspects to expect at:

1. The bass' truss road or neck relief equally it is as well called
2. The bass' cord height
3. The bass' intonation or the accuracy of a pitch being played.

Additionally, we're going to look at how to restring your bass likewise because in nearly cases the guess of your strings can affect how the instrument is ready.

While at that place are certainly others that are more cosmetically focused and contribute to the overall functionality of the bass guitar like fret vesture, cleanliness of the fretboard, cleanliness of the strings and so on, these 3 points above are the crux of any bass guitar set up. These are what are really going to brand your bass playable or not come up outset.

1. How to Restring a Bass

With playing a stringed instrument, knowing how to alter strings is must-know cognition.

While some bassists rarely always alter their strings, many bass players find themselves changing strings as frequently equally afterwards every show and others every few months. Regardless of the schedule y'all change your strings on, knowing how to do and then can modify you a tremendous amount of coin in having someone else service your bass for this one reason.

Here's the process step past step:

1. Loosen all the strings on the bass by rotating the tuning pegs until the strings seem to autumn off the tuning pegs
2. Accept a pair of wire clippers and snip off the elevation ends of the strings simply enough and then the curly ends are removed and you tin pull the string through the span and remove it
3.  Take a second to clean off the fretboard with a soft fabric and a guitar cleaner of your choice
4. Unbox your new ready of strings and pull them through their respective holes through the bridge all the style up to the tuning peg.
5. Fully extend each cord and with your alphabetize finger, measure off about an inch and a half past the tuning peg hole and cutting the excess off. Insert the cord directly into the tuning peg hole and using your thumb, guide the cord effectually the tuning peg as you wind it into place. Along the way, make sure that the string is coiling sufficiently and seated in it's corresponding section of the nut.
6. Repeat with each cord.

For additional insights and clarification, Elixir Strings put together a series of informative videos on bass guitar setup. Hither's their installment on bass string replacement.

2. Adjusting  Bass T russ Rod

Equally we said earlier, another term for adjusting the truss rod is adjusting the relief of the cervix. What is the relief of the cervix? Consider the post-obit image:

[pic]

Notice how the cervix seems to flex in and outward in the other motion-picture show? That means that the cervix has bowed too much in one direction and that bow translates direct to how playable your fretboard is with regards to how much fretbuzz you're going to experience note to note.

At present, earlier you lot brainstorm meddling with the truss rod, practise the following:

1. If you're looking to utilize new strings, practice information technology now and
2. Tune your bass to the correct standard tuning

Having your bass in as natural land as possible earlier you make these critical changes volition save you a lot of re-work time and headache afterward when you try to correct mistakes and fine tune your instrument'south cervix. Ultimately, you lot're looking for the string tension and the initial setup to be the same as when you play.

At present that you lot're all tuned up and set up to go, locate the truss rod nut. Most of the bass guitars out there will take their truss rod hole at the elevation of the neck but above the nut (left).

Observe the truss rod nut. Other times, it may be covered by a plate on the headstock, hidden past your pickguard or at the lesser of the bass'south neck towards the 20th/22nd or 24th fret.

Left and Right: Fundamentals for Truss Rod Adjustment

Now that we've identified everything we need to get going, permit'due south actually start adjusting.

Study Bass recommends making  a marking on the truss rod nut and then you know where you started and as a general reference betoken. Very good advice to make for piece of cake fault correction. Just return the truss rod to the original position.

Now, remember: Information technology doesn't have much turning of the truss rod to adjust the neck.

Adjustment oft requires a small turn of the neck, usually a quarter or one-half plow, either to the left or to the correct.

And also retrieve to use the correct hex Allen wrench when adjusting the truss. Using the wrong truss might set you lot up to strip the truss rod nut and that would exist very bad news for you, your bass and your wallet. Recent models of Fender take come with their own special ball-ended truss rod adjusting tool.

Beneath is a graphic provided past Sweetwater.com on how to adjust the bass truss rod neck and what really turning the neck left or right gives you. Turning the rod to the LEFT loosens the neck and gives more 'hump'. Turning the rod to the RIGHT gives more bow in the neck.

Kickoff past:

Loosen it by turning it to the left merely to popular the rod out of place and get it ready for farther adjustment. Again – this doesn't crave a massive twist, just a gentle turn. Similar taking the cap off a Snapple bottle.

Now, start tightening the truss rod by turning information technology to the right. Measure where yous are subsequently each small plow.

To measure out the straightness of the neck, fret the starting time fret and the 15th fret of the lowest string. Past fretting these two areas, it should exist articulate how much relief there is in the neck past checking the space betwixt the bottom of the cord and the top of the frets. Like everything else so far, you should be looking for a petty bit of relief – no gaping holes.

Proceed to turn and measure until you've achieved that straightened cervix.

3. Bass Guitar Bridge Setup: String Height

At present that yous bass' neck is good and straightened out, we tin can begin to focus on the string tiptop of your bass.

For the showtime two years of playing bass, I wasn't actually paying attention to string acme, but I probably should have been. Information technology wasn't until I graduated to my American Fender Jazz bass whose cord summit was considerably lower to the fretboard did I realize that past starting time bass' string top was more than like what James Jamerson was playing: high up similar an upright bass. On the plus side, I developed immense paw strength early on in my playing only information technology was more often than not due to young ignorance and not knowing any better than anything else.

Bottom line: string tiptop matters.

Bass string height can be adapted with the respective cord'south saddles on the bridge (the tube looking pieces with the grooves in them on the front end of the screws):

Adjusting string height is considerably easier than adjusting the truss rod. All that's required is an Allen wrench that fits the minor holes on either side of the saddle caput and a few turns to heighten each string. Fretnot Guitar recommends setting up your cord heights to factory settings as a go-to baseline.

Though in that location is a recommendation, string height is largely preferential. Depending on how you lot play, you might want the strings higher or lower.

Adjust the superlative of your lowest string so you don't go whatsoever cord buzz. Check the open cord and all the frets up and down the neck for buzz.

4. Bass Guitar Bridge Setup: Intonation

Intonation is how in melody a note is. Believe information technology or not, even on a fretted bass guitar, there are slight differences with how in tune a note is the closer you play it to a fret versus playing it center fret. When your intonation is not in the best of shape, you might notice that playing all the notes slightly more to the right or left of center fret is what's going to make the notation come up out in tune. When that happens, it'southward time to check out your intonation.

a. Adjusting and Refining Your Intonation

To set the intonation of your bass guitar, y'all must lengthen or shorten the string by moving the cord'southward saddle backward or forward. You do this past tightening or loosening the intonation screws at the back of the bridge.

Hither's the process to checking your intonation:

With a properly calibrated electric tuner, tune all the strings on your bass guitar to their open pitches.

Next, offset with the lowest cord (the Due east cord), brainstorm the process byfretting the string at the twelfth fret. Make sure yous press the string straight down. Y'all want this fretted annotation to exist in tune. It should be the same note as the open string. Check the electronic bass tuner to see if you are flat (too depression) or sharp (too high). If you are apartment, yous need to shorten the cord by moving the saddle forward. If you are sharp, yous need to add length to the string by moving the saddle backward.

Later you adjust the saddle, double check the open string is nonetheless in tune.

Repeat for each string.

Wrap Up

In this installment of the Bass Essentials Series, we covered how to prepare  a bass guitar. Nosotros looked at adjusting the truss rod, checking intonation, how to suit string height and how to change strings.

Setting upwards a bass guitar doesn't need to exist a particularly challenging task only with the right know how and tools to make it happen, you lot can accept care of it yourself.

A word to consider: if you're notwithstanding a  little leery almost tinkering with your bass for the beginning fourth dimension, take it to your local guitar shop and accept them set it up. Most guitar shops are very flexible and go far their focus to work with you and brand sure you're satisfied with the mode the instrument information technology set upwardly to play.

Additionally, here's a short list of tools you're probably going to need if you're trying to set up your bass one of these days:

• A prepare of Allen Wrenches of varying sizes and diameters for Bridge work and truss aligning
• A ready of guitar wipes for cleaning downwardly the instrument when done
• A apartment edge ruler

Finally, here are some additional resources from other reputable sources around the Net to consult when fixing up and setting up your bass guitar:

• Premier Guitar's Guide to Bass Setup
• Fender's Bass Set Up Guide
• Bassplaying.com's Set up Guide

Source: https://smartbassguitar.com/part-6-how-to-set-up-a-bass-guitar/

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